Saturday, February 21, 2015

Topic: Quranic Wisdom concerning Social Life. (What is Wisdom? part 9)

Continents are divided into countries; countries are divided into states; states are
divided into groups. Regardless, what is the motif behind these divisions? It is
mostly to get an authoritative status to establish power that satisfies the ego.
When you feel powerful, you use it to feel secure within you and for political
reasons.
The Twelfth Word: page 146, Third PrinciplePhilosophy accepts force as its point of support in the life of society
Philosophy: any interpretation of human existence without taking notice of the
Creator or without assigning our existence to its real Owner. A person who does
not heed to the revelation, the message brought by the Prophets, will
never realize the purpose of his/her existence. We have to pay attention to
the message if we are convinced that we have a cause/source of existence in this
universe.
-

If someone does not accept a Creator, he relies on himself/his own power.

Power may extend to family, tribe, country or nation. The attitude goes as
follows:
o If I am powerful, I can protect myself and I can impose my own rulings
on others. If am not powerful, I cannot guarantee my security in this
world.
o Should we have a point of security in our lives? Yes. Can we secure
our existence? No.
There is a contradiction: we want to secure our existence but we
cannot secure it.
o We try to get security either through individual power or through
the power of a community.
o Even animals need security; their behavior is innate to them. We,
human beings, we acquire the behavior to secure our needs.
Our need for security is legitimate. How can I secure this
need? We have to look for a solution to secure our existence
and then talk about securing our lives. Our life is confined to
this universe because when we die, our body transforms from
animate to inanimate existence in this world. It still exists but not
as our body anymore. How about my human soul?
o How can I secure my existence eternally? We usually avoid
looking into this because we cannot find any permanent solution to
secure our existence by ourselves or by any other means within this
universe; but the innate need yearns for securing my existence. The
solution requires us to submit to the One i.e. the Source of existence.

This submission or assigning our existence to its Creator, the Absolute

Source of existence, is mostly feared among secularist ideologists.
We always have to speak from our perspective: I am given existence,
my existence does not belong to me or to the elements of the
universe, since the elements of the universe are also given existence;
therefore we must all belong to an Absolute Source. The Absolute it is
something beyond our capacity to understand what is not of the
nature of this universe within the context of this universe. But I am
sure of its existence because I cannot explain my own existence
without attributing it to the existence of its Absolute Source.
The essence of the Absolute by its own definition of being the
Absolute is indescribable.

When we realize that we do not own anything, that sense is beautiful.

o Sense of disowning connects us to our Creator because we can
attach our being to Him alone. If he creates us as a baby, we feel
comfortable; if he creates old age for us, we should again feel
comfortable because our existence belongs to Him.
I do not belong to myself, can I be self-sufficient? No. Since I
have a Creator, then I should let Him manage my existence.
The Source of security can only be sought after when we realize
that we cannot guarantee our own existence: that is the point
of support of our existence (noktah istanadiya).
o If we do not have a point of support to protect our lives, everything
becomes meaningless. Can we trust the universe to protect us? No.
People who do not accept the Creator are bound to rely on internal
power (individual) or some external power (state, tribe, community,
family).
Either way, the external power is just like internal power.
Ultimately we are relying on an ephemeral individual power.

There are no enemies out there, the enemy is within you. Example: we set
boundaries where we do not want people entering our territory. When they
enter, they become enemies.
o We create our own enemies through false concepts. For example:
you are the top performer at your company, a new associate comes
in and performs more or less better than you; then he/she becomes
your competitor which leads to enmity. We should be responsible for
our own self.
Those people who do not believe in a Creator have to rely on
their imaginary power.

Religion does not impose on us to believe in God; it invites us to investigate. It asks

us to question our reality so that we may search for a Creator. We either believe in
the revelation or we do not. Religion is something abstract; it does not force us to

believe blindly in a Creator. There is an apparent contradiction when we say:

I do not know why I believe in God but God asks me to believe in Him. In
our existence, we are just establishing the reality of our belief. We cannot arbitrarily
assume that we believe in God. Believe in God should be our conclusion. The
Quran encourages us to investigate and guide us how to do this; our reasoning is to
be based on our own decision. We have been given the criterion within ourselves
which we have to use to make the distinction between right and wrong.
You are free to approve /disapprove or imitate belief. If you conclude that your
existence belongs to the One who creates the universe, then you start extrapolating
the meaning of existence according to the Giver of existence who is
Absolute; now, that is your conclusion. Therefore, we cannot claim that our
religion requires us to have security by believing in God without really being
satisfied. Because of the baseless assumption of belief, our questions and
reasoning may seem artificial. We are here to use our human qualities and we
have the ability to monitor our feelings and make sense of our existence. We need
to establish the certainty in our conclusions.
Being weak or powerful is not the point; we have to be powerful in terms of
relying/trusting on the power of the Creator. It is as if the Creator says to us:
you are powerful if you are just i.e. man of truth. The Creator does not
care about our artificial power; on the contrary, He cares about our truthfulness in
accepting the reality and submitting to the truth. That is called justice.
Should I follow the truth or my power? We cannot rely on our power to protect
ourselves and our properties; we have to rely on the truth. We need security for
our personal lives and so we have to be man of truth. We need to establish the
right base. Example: If there is a piece of land that you purchase, the truth is
that the land is allotted to you within the property of God. This is your right
assigned by your Creator. Here, if you understand your existence and if you believe
in a Creator, you will be man of truth which is based on your level of
understanding the reality of your existence.
The Quranic view offers us to rely on the truth whereas the materialist view/secular
ideas offer us to rely on materials as a source of power. If you want to follow the
truth, you have to look for the truth. What can be the Source of the truth? Is it
my idea, your idea, the secular ideas or the truth taught by my Creator? I am
looking for guidelines to organize my life and I say that whoever made me to follow
the truth must be the Source to teach me because I do not know. My cells cannot
teach me, the galaxy cannot teach me, bottom line, I cannot find the Source of the
truth in the universe. The Creator who created me with the need to follow
the truth must show it to me, it is innate to us. I am given the capacity to
confirm the truth that He shows me. Without using my freewill I cannot get His
guidance.

 Looking for the truth is not subjective but defining certain things as
the truth is subjective.
Starting from the practical side of any matter makes us blind to our reality. We need
to first establish the foundations of belief firmly: Foundations practical side
confirmation.
The Prophet (pbuh) was attacked several times in Mecca, did he retaliate? No. Only
after the Prophet was given the permission to defend himself against the attacks,
then he defended himself. Similarly, if someone attacks you, it is right to defend
yourself (that is innate) but it is wrong to rely on your power. Relying on our
own power is not the truth: we have to work on becoming man of truth.
While we are defending ourselves with our material means, we are still
asked to rely on Gods power and act as He showed us how to act in the
right way without using our own judgment. As a result of which the
Holder of the truth will protect us if we act in His Name.
Question: How do you handle fear in order to feel secure?
The sense of security and fear are given to us to be used to connect with the
Creator. The existence of fear is a sign teaching us something. We cannot get rid
of fear; it is good because if we make a mistake, fear jumps in that we have done
something wrong. When we have a fear of making a mistake, it helps us to stay
on the right path, which is how we are made. Our ultimate purpose is not to
overcome fears. The ultimate purpose of fear is to get to the way of
securing our existence i.e. attaching our being to an Eternal Source.
Materialist views that do not take the existence of the Creator into account while
reasoning about the sense of fear that they are created with. They rely on their own
power, rather than being right, so they pile up ammunitions to guarantee
their security. This does not resonate with man of truth.
It considers its aim to be benefits. The principle of its life it
recognizes it to be conflict. It holds the bond between communities to be
racialism and negative nationalism.
-

Benefits: interests of the self/nation.

o Any Atheist idea seems to be reasonable to become an
individualistic.
Negative nationalism: national interest comes before the individual benefit.
You can kill one person for the benefit of one million people with
justification. For example: some king killing his brothers because of the fear
of having a conflict with his brothers to rule the kingdom. Is this partial or
relative justice?
o If you kill one man unjustly, it is as if you killed all mankind (5:32),
even it is for the benefit of whole humanity. These are the principles

of the Quranic study of justification (Adalaa haqiqiya), the criterion

to which is based on the truth (haq).
The Quran claims that God created the universe with truth. If you
insult one particle, you have insulted the whole universe, including
the Creator. By transgressing the right of one particle, you deny God.
Therefore, look for the truth even if it goes against your individual
interest; you have to follow the truth and never get carried away by
egoistic desires.

O you who believe! Be ever steadfast in upholding equity, bearing witness to the
truth for the sake of God, even though it be against your own selves or your parents
and kinsfolk. Whether the person concerned be rich or poor, God's claim takes
precedence over [the claims of] either of them. Do not, then, follow your own
desires, lest you swerve from justice: for if you distort [the truth], behold, God is
indeed aware of all that you do! Nisa (4): 135.
Its fruits are gratifying the appetites of the soul and increasing human
needs. However, the mark of force is aggression. The mark of benefit
since they are insufficient for every desire is jostling and tussling. While
the mark of conflict is strife. And the mark of racialism since it is
nourished by devouring others is aggression. It is for this reason that it
has negated the happiness of mankind.
-

Soul: egoistic desires.

Human needs: desires to have more.
o Artificial need is created through our egoistic desires.
o If you have power and think that you are powerful, you become
aggressive. If you are man of truth, you cannot use your power to
transgress others.
Aggression is inevitable if you follow your egoistic desires.
o The desires do not have any limit and we always complain that life is
conflict.
o We think that our nation is the best. Even the poorest countries have
some sort of national pride in order to justify that they are the best.
We need to follow the truth and become man of truth.